The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-18

pTlale. nen give me une lnalleU ana uhe
chisel, and | will cut an honest epitaph:
Here lies the victim Of dissipating associa-
tiOns'
Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right or
wrong is the effect it has on your secular Oc-
cupation. / can understand how through
such an institution man can reach com
mercial success. | know some men have
formed their best business relations through
such channel Ii the secret society has adj
vantaged you in an honorable calling 1t IS
good one But has your credit failed, Are
bargain makers more anxious how they trust
you with IA bale of goods, Have the men
whose names were down in the commercial
agency A /, before they entered the society,
been going down since In commercial stand
ing: Then look out. You and | every day
know of commercial establishments going to
ruin through the social exceSses of one or
two members, their fortune beaten TO death
with bail players, bat or cut amidships with
the front PROV of the regatta, or going down
under the swift hoofs of the fast horses, or
drowned in the large pOtations of cognac or
Monongahela. That secret society was the
Loch Earn Their business was the Vile de
Havre, They struck and the Vile de Havre
went under"
The third test by which you may know
whether the society TO which you belong is
good or bad is this: What is its effect on your
sense of moral and religious obligation,
Now, if | should take the names of all the
people in this audience this morning and
put them on roll, and then should lay
that roll back of this organ, and a hundred
years from now some one should take that
roll and call il from A To Y there would rot
one of you answer. | say that any society
that makes me forget that fact is u bad
society. When go to Chicago am some
times perplexed at Buffalo, as | suppose
many travellers are as to whether it is better
TO take the Lake Shore route or the Michi-
gan Central, equally expeditions and equally
safe, getting to their destination at the same
time. But suppose that | hear that on one
route the track is torn up, the bridges are
down and the switches are unlocked, it will
not take mo a great while to decide
which road to take Now, here are two
roads in the future-the Christian
and the unchristian, the safe and the unsafe
Any institution or any association that con
fuses my ideas in regard to that fact is bad
institution and bed association. | had
prayers before joined that society, did |
have them afterward9 / attended the house
of God before | connected myself with that
union, do / absent myself from religious
influences? Which would you rather have
in your hand when you come to die-a pack
of cards or a Biblef Which would YOU
rather have pressed TO your lips in the
closing nioment-the cup of Belshazzarean
wassail or the chaice of Christian com
numionl Who would you rather have for
your pail -bearers-the elders of a Christian
church or the companions whose con-
versation was full Of slang
and innuendo? Who would YOU rather
have for your eternal companionS-
those men who spend their evenings betting,
gambling, swearing, carousng and telling
vile stories, or your little child, that bright
girl whom the Lord tookf Oh, you would
not have been away so much nights, would
you, if you had known she was going away
so soon3 Dear me, your house has never
been the same place since. Your wife has
never Frightened up she has never got over
it. She never will get over it. How long
the evenings are with no one to put to bed,
and no one to whom to tell the beautiful
Bible stories
What pity it is that you cannot spend
more evenings at home in trying to help her
bear that sorrow You can never drown
that grief in the wine-cup. You can never
break away from the little arms that used
TO be flung around your neck when she used
to say: Papa, do stay with me tonight;
do stay with me tonight" You will never
be able to wipe away from your lips the
dying kiss of your little girl. The fascina-
tion of bad secret society is so great that
sometimes a man has turned his back on his
home when his child was dying of scarlet
ieNtT. ne WtIb away. DoiOIc ue bOJ DtCk
at midnight the eyes had been closed, the
undertaken had done his work, and the wife,
worn out with three weeks watching, lay
unconscious i'll the next room. Then the
returned father comes upstairs, and he sees
the cradle gone and the windows up, and
says: "What is the matterF On the judg
ment day he will find out what was the
matter.
oh man astray, God help you! ] am going
to make a very stout rope. You know that
sometimes rope-rnaker will take very
small threads and wind them together until
after awhile they become ship cable. And
| am going to take some very small delicate
threads and wind them together until they
make a very stout rope. | will take all the
memories of the marriage day-a thread of
laughter a thread Of light, a thread of
music, q thread Of banqueting, a thread OF
-congratulation, and / twist them together
and have one strand Then take thread
Of the hour Of the first advent in your
house, a thread of the darkness that pre-
ceded and IA thread Of the light that fol
lowed: and a thread of the beautiful scarf
that little child used TO wear when she
bounded out at eventde to greet you; and
then a thread Of the beautiful dress in
which YOU laid her away for the
resurrection: and then will twist all these
threads together, and have another strand
Then take thread of the scarlet robe OF q
suffering Christ, and thread of the white
raiment Of your loved ones before the throne,
and string Of the harp cherubic, and a
string Of the harp seraphic, and | twist them
all together, and | have third strand
90" you say, "either strand is enough to
hold fast wordm No; | will take these
strands and I will twist them together and
one end of that rope | will fasten, not TO the
communion table, for it shall be removed;
not TO pillar Of the organ, for that will
crumble in the ages but l wind il round
and round the cross of a sympathizing
Christ and having fastened one end Of the
rope 70 the cross, throw the other end to
you. Lay hold of it! Pull for your life!
Pull for heavenl
Senator Edmunds' Bulldog.